TLDR
- Bittensor (TAO) rose over 56% in seven days, hitting an intraday high of $293.8
- TAO is up 46% since the start of March, following its listing on Upbit exchange
- Grayscale’s Bittensor trust received SEC-reporting status on March 14
- A 72-billion-parameter AI model called “Covenant-72B” was announced for the Bittensor network
- Subnet tokens within the ecosystem also surged, with τemplar up 194% in seven days
Bittensor (TAO) has had one of its strongest weeks in recent memory. The token climbed more than 56% over seven days and hit a new high of $293.8 on March 16.
TAO started the week below $175. It is now trading close to $275, with a market cap around $2.6 billion.
$TAO The point @eliz883 touched on is important 👀 https://t.co/S5ITHqWcbZ pic.twitter.com/ezpxWYNrAX
— LSTRADER (@LSTraderCrypto) March 15, 2026
The move is not just driven by broader market sentiment. Several developments specific to the Bittensor project appear to be behind the price action.
On March 14, Grayscale’s Bittensor trust received SEC-reporting status. This means the fund now files reports with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, a step that tends to attract more attention from institutional investors.
Bittensor just trained a 72-billion parameter language model across a fully decentralized network. No single company. No central data center. Just a global mesh of permissionless compute nodes collaborating on 1.1 trillion tokens.
The model is called Covenant-72B, completed on… pic.twitter.com/cD57h8r3KJ
— LunarCrush (@LunarCrush) March 12, 2026
It signals a level of regulatory compliance that many crypto projects do not yet have. For some investors, this reduces perceived risk.
Covenant-72B Model Launch
The bigger catalyst came on March 15. Bittensor announced the upcoming release of the Covenant-72B model — a 72-billion-parameter AI system that will run on the Bittensor network.
This puts Bittensor in a new position. Rather than simply hosting AI tasks from external developers, it now has a large-scale AI model of its own running natively on-chain.
Investors appear to have reacted positively, viewing the move as a sign that Bittensor is building a more complete AI platform.
Large investors also added to their positions this week, and there has been renewed interest in AI-related assets more broadly.
Subnet Tokens Surge
Bittensor’s subnet ecosystem also saw strong gains. Each subnet is a separate AI market on the Bittensor network. After the Dynamic TAO (dTAO) upgrade, each subnet now has its own token.
τemplar led the gains with a 194% rise in seven days, currently priced at $19.3. TARGON was up 60.3% to $13.25. Chutes gained 40.1% to $25.1, and Affine rose 42.7% to $21.3.
These subnets function as independent AI markets, each focused on a specific type of AI output.
TAO was also listed on Upbit, a major South Korean exchange, at the end of February. The listing expanded access to a large new group of retail investors.
As of March 16, TAO reached a new intraday high of $293.8, up over 46% since the start of the month.
